Broken Wings
by Admiral Valor
Summary: After Jeremy graduated from Yamaku High School, he was asked to write a book about life decisions and how they can affect other people in their lives. He agreed to write the book, and used the accident that changed his life forever as a starting point for his story. He titled this book 'Broken Wings', in which he describes his decisions in life that may have saved others.
1. Prologue

Today was the last day of school before winter break. Although not necessarily exciting, it's the anniversary of the incident that changed my life. Now, when I say this, it wasn't a happy or exciting event at all, in fact, I'm still not sure whether or not it had changed my life for the better. After hearing everything, maybe you can decide for yourself.

It's fairly difficult to recall, and I can only remember some specific details and other things a little more vaguely. This accident wasn't something pointless like a fight or a prank that you usually see in the last few days before a break, it was more of a life changing incident that a lot of people say shouldn't have happened in the first place. It happened right after school, when everyone would make their way back to their homes to spend the rest of the month relaxing, whether they went on vacation or not. It didn't really matter to me, because my friend and I were going to spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying ourselves before he went off to college, some said our friendship was weird, considering he was two grades above me and graduated, but it didn't really matter to us, we worked well together. Well, that was the plan.

We were walking the same route we usually take to get to our neighborhood, through some hilly roads that wound through some small suburbs. My friend was deeply involved in a phone call, so I had to constantly correct his path. We were crossing near the top of one of these hills, one where you couldn't see a car coming over the other side. The view was particularly nice, and we liked standing up here to relax for a short bit. But today, there would be no relaxing, in fact, it would turn this day upside down for both of us. I was slugging a little behind my friend, who had sped up for some reason, and then stopped in the middle of the road. I remember calling out his name as I heard a vehicle begin to speed up. I didn't have time to look at the vehicle completely, but it was one of those small hatchbacks you would see being used as a small mobile home for those who couldn't exactly afford a nice house. It didn't really matter to me, because my friend wasn't paying much attention anyway.

Normally a driver would slow down, but this one sped up. I managed to push my friend Aven out of the way of the vehicle, but that put me right in the path of the driver. The last thing I remember was my friend turning around, just then realizing what was happening as the low vehicle struck hard into my legs. My body crumpled onto the vehicles hood, slamming into the front windshield, rolling over the roof and onto the pavement. Everything was black and white, and I knew that I had been stabbed by glass and felt pain all over, but I felt nothing from the lower half of my legs. Sounds echoed as if I was in a cave. I'm pretty sure the driver sped off, that's what they said

"You fucker! Shit, Jeremy can you hear me!?" Aven yelled. His voice sounded far and the world was dark. I tried to open my mouth to speak, but that felt impossible to do.

"Hold on, buddy! I'm calling for help, just hold on!" He said, I could hear the panic in his voice as he dialed the emergency services.

"Hello? My friend just got hit by a car..." I heard him say before everything went black, and it felt like every sound just stopped. That was the last thing I remembered from that afternoon.

It took two weeks for me to wake up. By then I had already gone through multiple life saving surgeries, a countless amount of glass had been pulled from my body, and not surprisingly, the lower half of my legs had been completely crushed and destroyed. When they amputated them, they left stubs right below the knee, which is where they planned on fitting prosthetic legs on me. I woke up in the hospital bed, the first things I felt was pain all over my body, and the breathing mask they had put on my to keep my breathing easy and steady, and I couldn't open my left eye, or at least, it was covered by something. The nurse that was cleaning the room noticed I was awake and quickly left to retrieve a doctor, who arrived shortly afterward.

The first thing he did was set a stack of paperwork on the counter across from me. The room itself was a small, single patient room with a window facing the countryside, the bed was closest to the window, with the rest of the room consisting of a chair, a table, and counters that were filled with papers and medical instruments. The doctor strolled up the side of the bed in his chair, I moved my head in an attempt to face him better.

"Can you talk, Jeremy?" He asked, I opened my mouth, but I quickly closed it knowing that it wouldn't work anyway. The doctor took a deep breath and exhaled, reading through a paper as if it had all of the words he needed to say.

"Never mind. Jeremy, I'm Dr. Arfy, I've been in charge of your care since you arrived. I know you can't speak right now, but that will come back soon. There are a few things your guardian and I would like you to know, so that you can get an idea as to what is going on." Dr. Arfy said. I knew that everything was going to be technical, and that I was about to hear things I wouldn't like.

"Now, on the good side of things, you saved your friends life, and his family is very thankful for that. However, in doing so, the accident caused a lot of damage to your body, especially the lower half. It's a miracle that most of your legs weren't destroyed, had it been a normal vehicle, that wouldn't be the case. With what your friend told us, the impact with the car is what caused most of the damage, of course, but ultimately landing on the pavement afterward is what caused some extra damage to your face." Dr. Aven paused before continuing, "this is going to sound a little extreme, but I have to tell you. First off, you've lost both of your lower legs, which means you won't be able to walk normally anymore until we can fit your prosthetic legs on. Second, you have a lot of scars on the right side of your body where glass had stabbed and penetrated your skin. With the last of the injuries being your left eye. I don't know if it has to deal with bad luck or anything else, but the only would suffered to your face was a glass shard that cut across your eye. The eye is still there, but you're permanently blind in that eye now, and it's sensitive to light, so we've put an eye patch over it. Be careful where you take it off, too much light exposure in that eye can really hurt you. As an extremely rare side affect from the multiple X-rays we had to take, your eye color changed to purple. That isn't a specifically bad thing, I just thought you should know." He finished before standing up and moving the chair back to its original position.

He paused before leaving the room, only turning around for a brief moment as if he was about to say something, and then promptly opening the door and exiting, closing the door behind him. The room itself was, in my opinion, a little comfortable. None of the lights were on, making the only light the natural light coming through the window. It was snowing outside, and all of the tree lacked leaves and instead carried a small amount of snow on each, giving the world, in my opinion, a beautiful appearance.

That day marked the beginning of the change in my life. I can't forget it. In the following weeks, I went through more surgeries, and the amount of people that came to visit me trickled down less and less. Eventually I would learn how to walk again, and even end up swimming again. It wasn't a speedy recovery, but the doctors where surprised at my determination. The only people that truly visited after wards was my best friend Trevor, and my Guardian. In the five months that it took me to recover from the accident, it only took a day to mark the 'restart' in my life.


	2. Chapter 1: Restart

"So, Mr. Burgess, you're one lucky kid." The doctor said as he shuffled through many of his papers, "but as a precaution..." Continued the doctor.

It's been like this for at least five months now. I'm surprised I've gone on with this for so long, after the 'event'. This same issue is why I'm sitting here now, listening to a doctor drone about some new plan to 'help me cope' with my condition.

"... Jeremy? Are you listening?" The doctor asked, lowering his head to get eye contact with me.

"Yeah." I said. That was the same response I used quite often. It felt like at this point the doctors didn't put in as much effort as I did, especially with moderate communication.

"Anyway, since you seem to have improved, we're scheduling for your release soon. Maybe in a week or so." The doctor said, seemingly reading off of a sheet of paper.

"What?" I asked, "does that mean I can go back to school?" I asked. The doctor frowned as he searched for yet another piece of paper jumbled with medical lingo. He stared at the paper he had pulled out a moment before speaking.

"I'm afraid not, actually. Your school isn't equipped to deal with your unusual medical circumstances." He explained, trying to avoid a specific term for me. Crippled, would be the simple way of putting it. I don't understand why they avoid saying it out anyway, but if I asked I'm sure that they would just give me one of those generic responses like 'it's for your own health'.

"So what am I going to do? My guardian definitely can't home school me." I said, frowning, "that also means I won't see my friends either, huh?" I said, complaining about the circumstances.

The doctor leaned back in his chair, dropping the fake smile on his face.

"I know you're upset, but we've made plans for you." The doctor said, I sighed at the end of that response.

"I'm sorry for being rude, but hasn't that been the only thing you guys have been doing in the first place?" I asked, folding my arms in annoyance. Even if they don't admit it, it really has been the only thing they've been doing. But that shouldn't surprise me anymore.

"Look, it will work out perfectly, you'll meet a lot of people just like you." The doctor said, attempting to reassure me, I sighed once again.

"Might as well, you're the doctor, not me." I said, the doctor smiled at the remark, regardless of whether or not it was even a compliment.

"That's right, trust us on this, okay?" He said, getting up from his chair. He shoved a number of papers into an envelope along with a package containing various pain medications.

"Now, since you're sixteen we should be able to trust that you won't try to kill yourself." The doctor started, poking at some dark humor, "in about a few hours or so when we finally get everything worked out, you'll finally be completely out of here." He said, attempting to sound relieved at this progress.

"What do I do in the meantime? Boredom and I don't bode well." I said.

"You can practice your walking, read, do whatever isn't harmful to your health. You'll be confined to the hospital until you're released, so your range of activities are limited." Explained the doctor. "The pool is also open, I've heard you're trying to swim again." He continued.

"Try to swim? You should word it like I can swim, because I really can." I said, the doctor laughed for whatever reason.

"I'm sure you can. Remember, back in your room by eight, other than that, try to enjoy your evening, Jeremy." The doctor said, collecting his clipboard and leaving the room.

You might not believe it, but it's been like this for weeks. Like I said, there isn't much variation in my life here. I've read quite a large amount of books, and, although reading is a small portion of my life, I do enjoy it quite a lot. However, since the accident, I've lost a lot of the joy I had from it, since I rarely get to find someone to discuss with about the books.

Another thing he brought up was practicing walking. Although I'm fine already when it comes to walking, the doctors said that I should practice getting faster, so they gave me prosthetic legs suited for running, so with these I can practically jog with little effort, I just need more practice keeping my balance.

And then there's swimming. Ironically, the doctors both encourage and want to keep me from swimming. A few of them fear that I may drown in the pool, however I'm very doubtful considering the measure they take for safety and the fact that I can still swim. Unlike most things, swimming is one of the few activities that I can still enjoy. In fact, swimming was something that I was always good at. I used to swim by myself all the time at the school's sport pool by myself when it was quiet. It helped me when it came to thinking about things.

So, as predictable as I could be, I began to make my way down to the pool, which around at that time, there wasn't very many people there, and I would have at least one lane to myself. The journey to the pool is rather tedious, since this hospital is fairly large and modern, there is elevators, however, since the doctors have barred me from using them, I have to resort to the stairwells. Stairs are fairly difficult for me to move on, since my legs aren't really well build for that sort of thing. As I'm making my way down one of the flights, a doctor stops me to talk.

Surprisingly enough, there are few doctors I actually like, for instance, this one. I call him Dr. H2O, since his last name is clearwater, and he doesn't mind. He's a cool-headed doctor, in my book.

"So, are you ready to restart your life, Jeremy?" He asked, I tilted my head a little at the question.

"Restart?" I asked, the doctor returned a smile.

"Not really restart, but more like restart and continue." He said, trying to explain.

"I didn't follow." I said, he laughed a little bit.

"I know it's tough, but what I'm asking is, are you ready to leave behind your old life and continue on a new slate?" He asked. I forgot to mention that Dr. H2O was the only doctor that seemed to actually care about me.

"I guess we will find out when the time comes. I'm not sure if I can handle having to start everything over again." I explained, Dr. H2O sighed and looked at his watch.

"You have three hours before you need to be back in your room. Tomorrow we start the process of getting you out of here. I have a patient to attend to, sorry." He said as he began to rush up the stairs.

"Good luck!" I yelled out as the door shut behind him. I knew he was constantly busy, considering he is a doctor.

The rest of the way to the pool was relatively uneventful, mostly just doctors and nurses making their way around the hospital, a few offered a nod or a hello here and there. The pool was supervised by a handful of lifeguards, just in case anything were to happen. This was also the place where I could talk to this girl. Looking back now, I feel bad about my choices I made with her. You see, this girl wasn't normal, in terms of recovery.

Her name was Alex, and she had a heart condition that I was never really told about. This heart condition was first discovered in the middle of the class when she had a heart attack, it almost killed her. After countless failed surgeries, she was told that she had a few weeks left to live and she chose to stay in the hospital. As much as I can remember, she was pretty attractive, and she was around my age at the time. Normally I could find her at the indoor pool in the afternoon. We actually became good friends.

She was, of course, there this afternoon as well. However, unlike her generally and surprisingly positive mood, she was pretty down today. Her mood seemed to brighten a little upon seeing me, however, that even quickly died. I went to go get changed, and when I did, returned to the pool to start my laps, she joined me.

"So, Jeremy, I heard that you were leaving soon." Her tone of voice sounded rather depressed.

"Probably, I don't know when exactly, but the doctors are putting things together fairly quick." I answered, she looked hurt receiving this information.

"Oh, it was nice meeting you. It really felt like you were the only one that would talk to me with actual feelings." She said.

"Look, I know it's pretty rough for you to hear this now, but, leaving is pretty tough for me too. I was really glad to have met you, Alex." I said.

"No you weren't..." Alex said, she looked rather crushed, I grabbed her shoulder and we stopped swimming, floating in place.

"Alex, when I tell you this now, it's true. You are one of the most interesting peoples I've ever met, I'm truly glad to have met you and no matter what, no matter how you feel, know that I'm always there for you." I said, our eyes were locked.

"You are one of the people that kept me from giving up. I don't know how important you think you are, but know that to me, you are extremely important. Don't give up, Alex, there are people cheering you on, and more you may not even know counting on you." I said. Alex was in tears by now, and she moved in close enough to hug me very tightly, I returned that hug.

I shortly learned that, after a few days I had left to travel to Yamaku High School, Alex had passed away. The nurse said that she died peacefully, and that she had a smile on her face when she did pass. I'm not sure if it's what I said to her that evening, or if she really did start thinking more positively. Anyway, I think of her as the first biggest influential persons in my new life that passed away. I still feel guilty for not giving her a proper goodbye, but I will never forget about her.

I remember thinking to myself, 'so, this is how I'm starting this new life'. My life had been restarted, so to speak. I remember first approaching the High School, overwhelmed by it's sheer size...


End file.
